I’m all about competition and it’s evident already that this season is going to be a two-horse race. Manchester United has only gotten better since they won the league title last year. Their one concern, Cristiano Ronaldo leaving, seems to have subsided and they are again playing great soccer.

As for Chelsea, they seem to be playing with an enormous chip on their shoulder. And they are playing well with it. After coming in second to United last year in the Premier League and losing in penalties in the Champions League final, they seem determined to reclaim those titles and hand United a little payback.

This is the thing, it’s not that United and Chelsea are so good, it’s that the rest of the league is so inconsistent. Arsenal seem to immature and young to ever make a title run for the next five years. It seems as if they are unwilling, or unable, to pay the money United and Chelsea have given out to keep up with the best. Liverpool seemed to be one of this year’s biggest threats but it seems to me that nothing has been done to be classed with Chelsea and Man United. Although they’ve shown hope so far this season, I don’t think it will last.

Listen, I know its early but let’s be frank here. Arsenal sucks, Tottenham is never good but not great, Liverpool just won’t make it and Manchester United has Cristiano Ronaldo. I’m praying that I’m wrong here and we’ll all look back at this post and laugh, but I’m afraid it won’t happen.

It looks as if Manchester City, not AC Milan as first thought, will end up with Ronaldinho. Manchester City and Ronaldinho have been talking and seem to be the front runner to acquire the star from Barcelona FC. AC Milan looked to be the sure favorites to obtain Ronaldinho but have since stepped back. AC Milan now seem to have their eyes on a different star, Didier Drogba.

Chelsea has now allowed AC Milan to speak with Drogba about a possible transfer to Italy. A trade of Drogba from Chelsea to AC Milan seems very promising. AC Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani hints that a transfer of Drogba is imminent.

Chelsea have authorised us to open negotiations with Drogba

AC Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani on Didier Drogba Trade

Also rumored in the deal would be the return of Andriy Shevchenko to AC Milan but AC Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani says Chelsea are not willing to give up on Schevchenko just yet.

Unfortunately, the response we feared came (for Shevchenko). Chelsea consider Andriy unsellable. This epilogue makes us very sad.

AC Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani on Andriy Shevchenko Trade

AC Milan aren’t stopping at Drogba either. After Barcelona striker, Samuel Eto’o's desire to leave Barcelona FC, AC Milan have begun talks with the striker from Cameroon. The only thing preventing a trade of Eto’o from Barcelona to AC Milan would be his concern of playing in the UEFA Cup next season. AC Milan failed to qualify for Champion’s League and is yearning to win the cup somewhere. Galliani insisted to Eto’o that Milan will be competitive despite not being in Champion’s League.

Barcelona may want to hang on to Eto’o as it seems that Ronaldinho will be traded soon to Manchester City. Barcelona have given permission to speak with Ronaldinho and Manchester City will try their hardest to bring the Brazilian star to the English Premier League.

It’s a tenuous stage and I don’t want to give too much away, but Barcelona gave us clearance to talk to him.We had some people in Brazil last weekend, who we’ve been talking to but we have a long, long list of things we need to get done because of the type of player he is – the world’s greatest player. He wants to show the world he is the greatest player. At the moment, though, we’re just ticking off the boxes. I think the Manchester City fans, who are the most important part of this, would like to see Ronaldinho kicking off next season here.He has intimated he is interested, otherwise we wouldn’t be at the stage we are now. Ronaldinho has an interest in coming to City.

Manchester City Executive Chairman Garry Cook on Ronaldinho

Along with Ronaldinho Manchester City is going after another Brazilian. CSKA Moscow striker, Jo, is just days away from signing with Manchester City and will certainly excite fans in Manchester.

]]> http://soccerusa1.com/ronaldinho-and-drogba-trade-rumors-heat-up/feed/ 0 http://soccerusa1.com/another-blown-chance-for-us-national-team/ http://soccerusa1.com/another-blown-chance-for-us-national-team/#comments Fri, 30 May 2008 02:04:45 +0000 Sean Connolly http://soccerusa1.com/?p=35

By Sean Connolly Soccer in America is rising, but it will never be where England is and yesterday's game proved it. In a friendly match at Wembley Stadium in England, the U.S. soccer team came out flat and got straight up beat by a much better Read more

Manchester United-2 Chelsea-1

Yeah, that’s my prediction but with the way the Champion’s League has gone this year who knows. Manchester United, after wrapping up the Premier League title over the weekend, go into the final on May 21st with the most momentum. Alex Ferguson had an interesting way of explaining their momentum coming into the final in Moscow,

If we’d lost the title it would have been a great knock but we are bouncing into the Champions League final

Both Chelsea and Manchester United went into the final weekend of the season tied in points, but United’s win over Wigan Athletic, 2-0, and Chelsea’s 1-1 tie to Bolton gave United the cup. Chelsea goes into the final beat up after a long season of injuries and trade rumors that have slowed, but not stopped Chelsea. With questions surrounding Didier Drogba, and John Terry’s fitness coming into the match Chelsea will be coming into the game already down.

Although Drogba and Terry have confirmed that they will without a doubt be ready for the final, they will definitely not be 100%. Terry who dislocated his elbow on Sunday against Bolton and Drogba who hurt his knee assured the Chelsea faithful that they will be on the field when the whistle blows. This is what Drogba had to say about he and his captain,

He (Terry) will play in Moscow. No one wants to miss this gigantic match, the match of our careers.

There is less question about Terry who is arguably the toughest player in the world but more about Drogba. Drogba’s season has been riddled with knee injuries and it seems that he gets injured nearly every game. Drogba and Terry aren’t the only Chelsea stars who will be overcoming injuries for the final, Ricardo Carvhallo is also scheduled to come back after battling a back problem.

As for United, they come into the final relatively injury free and on fire. Cristiano Ronaldo won the English Player of the Year award after his most spectacular season yet. He has had 38 goals and has done nothing this year but prove he is the best in the world. His back to back awards as PFA Player of the year has made him the main target for Chelsea in the final. Ronaldo’s speed, agility, and sheer genius will be too much for Chelsea and their injuries. Chelsea will have to find a way to keep the ball on Frank Lampard’s feet and distribute vertically to Drogba to avoid Ronaldo. Against Barcelona, Ronaldo was given room to roam and just torched the Barcelona defense and midfield. Ronaldo is the key for Manchester United, and the only way Chelsea can prevent a Manchester United double will be to contain him. But, as I predicted before Chelsea will come up a goal shy and expect United to take home a 2-1 victory.

By Sean Connolly

If we continue not to win any trophies next year, then I will go somewhere else. I’ve done it all in Spain, I’ve reached the heights here and so if I do leave I will go to another league.

Eto’o, who comes off as a selfish player, proves that he is selfish off the field as well. He joined Barcelona in 2004 and has won trophies with the Spanish powerhouse. His team’s performance ended Barcelona’s dreams of winning the Spanish League as they tied 0-0 Espanyol, leading Eto’o to make remarks of possibly leaving the team. With only the Champion’s League trophy to win, Eto’o has become very anxious about his future with Barcelona.

Barcelona has done fairly well in the Champion’s League despite its poor play in Spain. They had a close call last round with Turkish squad, Fenerbahce, but overcame a first leg loss to win in the second leg and advancing to the next round. Barcelona find themselves in the final four of Europe’s most prestigious league matched up with a surging Manchester United team, who unfortunately for Barcelona fans, are playing their best soccer of the year. A loss for Barcelona could send fans into a deep stage of depression as nothing seems to be going right for Barca at the moment. The Eto’o situation is not helping coming into the first leg of the semi-final round and could hurt team morale.

Barcelona fans might not be able to endure another big name loss as earlier this month they learned that fan favorite, Ronaldinho, is more than likely heading to Italy, possibly a trade to AC Milan. Rumors of French superstar Thierry Henry heading back to England have also swirled. Luckily for Barca fans Vice President, Ferran Soriano, shot down those rumors. When asked if Henry will be headed back to the Premiership he had this to say…

I don’t think so. I spoke with him at length a week ago and he is happy in Barcelona. We were a bit disappointed because the team we have is the team to win all competitions and we are not doing very well in the domestic championship. But apart from that he is fine and I’m sure he is not coming back to the UK.

Henry isn’t the only one who has been rumored to leave Barcelona to go to the Premiership. Coach, Frank Rijkaard, has been rumored to be leaving Barcelona to head to Chelsea. Current Chelsea coach, Avram Grant, has been under fire this season and is likely out of Stamford Bridge soon. Rijkaard would be a perfect fit for Chelsea but all remains to be seen. When asked about Rijkaard’s possibilities of heading to the Premiership, Soriano refused to comment.

Barcelona face Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United on Wednesday as heavy underdogs. The 27 year old Eto’o, still has hope though to go to Russia for the Champions League final.

They are a step above us, but let’s see what happens on Wednesday…For me it is a big motivation that they are being classed as the favourites, that makes me even more keen to beat them.

As Arsenal continue to squander all of their chances for any sort of title, Arsene Wenger continues to coach poorly. He is incapable of handling these young players and is useless unless he coaches superstars. Therefore, Arsenal needs to make a drastic change and delete Wenger from the equation. This move would mirror that of the Yankees getting rid of Torre despite their winning ways in that winning the entire thing is more important than winning a lot of games and coming up short when it matters. But I digress. So, please make a big move and shake things up again Arsenal. For now I am stuck watching MLS, but after its start on Thursday it could become the main staple in my soccer watching diet.

This week has been a very interesting one for English soccer teams playing in the Champion’s League. With four teams currently still in play(Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea), the premiership is trying to prove that it is the most powerful in Europe. For the most part they have done so. Manchester United, led by the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo, took a 2-0 victory out of Italy as they beat AS Roma. Cristiano extended his amazing play from the premiership over the weekend to the Champion’s League on Tuesday. Cristiano has proved that he is the most electrifying player in soccer in the past year as he had yet again another brilliant game. His header for the first goal showed how much passion he plays with as he rose above a few Roman Defenders to finish in the back of the net. Over the weekend he helped United basically seal the premiership with only a few games left. He had total control of the game as he sent cutting passes throughout the game and led United to a victory. The way Ronaldo and the rest of United are playing they are with no doubt the favorite to win Europe and England.

As for Arsenal, they have chose the worst time to play like a rec league team. In only a month they have lost their spot atop England as they are now in third and need a miracle to take the title. They look as young as they are as they continually make childish mistakes that make them look absolutely awful. Today, Wednesday, they dominated the entire game against Liverpool at home but yet again failed to come away with a victory. After an amazing header from Adebayor from an equally amazing cross from Van Persie, Arsenal became flat and within 3 minutes, Liverpool’s Gerard cut the Arsenal defense up and put a pass right across Almunia for Kuyt to finish easily. Liverpool leaves North London with the ever crucial away goal as Arsenal and Liverpool tie 1-1. Although they tied Arsenal has to look at this game as a loss as they now need to go into Anfield and score at least one away goal. Despite being all but mathematically eliminated from winning the premiership, Liverpool seems to be doing everything right in the Champion’s League. As always they prove as a threat in Europe and could easily be the kind of team that could take down the streaking Manchester United.

The last team in England, Chelsea, had a rather upsetting day in Europe as they lost 2-1 to Fenerbahce in Istanbul. Chelsea couldn’t get anything going on offense and couldn’t score a goal themselves. Deivid of Fenerbahce, could not control a cross from Drogba and placed a ball perfectly in the back of his own net. That looked like that would be the end of Fenerbahce but they fearlessly came back and scored an equalizer. Then in the 81st minute Deivid went from goat to hero as he scored an impressive goal from 30 yards out into the top corner. Watching the first goal he scored on his own team you thought that he couldn’t finish any better, and ironically he showed that he is a true goal scorer as Fenerbahce leave with an impressive victory over a more talented team in Chelsea. Chelsea has has a tumultuous year since Jose Mourinho left. They haven’t been able to get over the hump in England as they are still out of first place. They did capitalize on Arsenal’s terrible play and now sit one spot ahead of them but they still need a lot of help in second place as Manchester are running away.